The Gift
by I'mHalfSickOfShadows
Summary: It was the happiest day of his life: he was marrying Annabeth. During the reception, however, he bumps into someone he did not expect to be there. Nico seems off, and Percy is determined to find out what is going on. One Shot.


**Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.**

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Today was the happiest day of his life. He was finally marrying the girl of his dreams, the one that took a poisoned knife for him, the one that pulled him through the deepest part of hell: The one and only Annabeth Chase. She was everything he'd ever wanted in a partner, and today they were making a compromise to stay together until Thanatos came to reap their souls.

He wandered around the reception, stopping ever so often to make polite small talk with his guests. His lovely wife had excused herself to change into something more comfortable than her wedding dress, so he was alone. Which was fine, really. They'd plenty of time together on their honeymoon.

He'd just gotten past Jason, who'd looked at him weirdly before breaking into a smile, when he spotted someone else: Nico. He hadn't seen the son of Hades in quite some time. In fact, he hadn't thought the younger demigod would even show up. Percy watched him from afar for a while, trying to assess what had changed in the five years since the ending of the war.

The boy – no, man. Nico should be twenty by now. Time really did fly by. Well, the man was all grown up. The Ghost King was still thin, but now he seemed to have packed more muscles underneath his suit. His hair was still shaggy and could use a trim. Funnily enough Percy couldn't bring himself to look at his face. Things got in the way. He frowned at that. The only time he remembered feeling anything similar was… with Tyson. Yes, the Mist had kept him from looking at his brother's face. He concentrated and looked harder. And all he saw were shadows covering the top half of his face. He decided to stop his indelicate staring and just go talk to the child of the Underworld.

"Hey, Nico!" he greeted happily.

The half-blood in question started, as if he didn't expect anyone to notice him, let alone voluntarily start a conversation.

"Oh. Hey, Percy. Congratulations. It was a beautiful ceremony." Was the reply. Percy had heard similar statements all night long, but there was something off about this one. It was too…lifeless. Almost like an automated message. But the son of Poseidon had learned a few things, and one of them was that Nico did not respond well to direct confrontation. So he tried a different tactic.

"Thanks! Is everything ok with you? Where have you been? I almost though you wouldn't come!"

"Well, I've been everywhere. I have a few places all over the globe, and I go to whichever one I feel like it. In fact, the place you're going to stay for your honeymoon was mine, but I sold it."

"Wow, I guess being the son of the god of wealth makes things easier, right?" he said, trying to keep things light. But the fact that Nico didn't have a home worried him "But why did you own a beach house in an island off the coast of Brazil?"

"I went there once, by accident. I liked it, it was very pretty and the water..." he trailed off.

"I hear the water there is pretty clear. I can't wait to get there! But if you liked it so much, why did you sell it?"

"A child of Hades would do well to stay away from the sea." He said in the same mechanic tone of voice as before.

Percy almost growled in frustration. Nico was clamming up again. Screw his clever approach tactics, he was going for direct confrontation.

"Why can't I see the top half of your face?" he blurted out "And why didn't I notice it before now?"

"I forgot what today was, and I woke up hung-over. I have terrible circles under my eyes, and they are still red too. So I didn't want to ruin your party by showing up looking like a drunkard." His tone was odd, like he was telling a rehearsed lie "As to why you couldn't see it, I may have manipulated the Mist a bit. So unless you were staring at me you shouldn't have noticed. Which begs the question, why were you staring at my face so intently?"

So he had been right about the Mist being involved. Percy shrugged, and he could have sworn that the corners of Nico's lips tilted downwards.

"Ok, then. And again, congratulations, I'm sure you will be very happy." He said again, sounding as emotional as a robot.

"Yeah, thanks, man. I'll see you around."

The son of Poseidon wasn't happy at all with the answers he'd gotten. Clearly something was up. But then Annabeth walked back into the room , wearing a silver dress that matched her eyes perfectly, and Percy lost his ability for coherent thought for a moment.

The subject came back to him when the newly-weds were going to the hotel where they would spend their first night as husband and wife. Before they went down the last flight of stairs, something caught their attention: someone was at the balcony. They crept closer to it, reaching for their weapons (how Annabeth managed to hide a weapon in her dress was a mystery to him). Then, Annabeth held up her hand, stopping him, and mouthed Look.

Percy did, and he realized there wasn't a person on the balcony. There were two. Nico di Angelo and Jason Grace were sitting on the floor, facing each other. From where the couple stood, they could see Nico's face. And it seemed that the son of Hades didn't think it was necessary to cover himself any longer. His face was free from shadows, and Percy had to hold in a gasp: Nico looked awful. Not in a hung-over way, no. His eyes were puffy, swollen and red-rimmed; the look of someone who spent a long time crying. Percy felt tempted to march over there and confront the younger demigod, but he decided to listen in on their conversation. Not exactly noble, but he had to know. And if he had to eavesdrop to get to the bottom of this, so be it.

"I'm fine, Jason. Go back to Piper, I'm sure she's wondering where you are by now." The Ghost King said.

"No, you're not fine. You look like shit."

"Maybe because I haven't eaten, slept or done anything other than cry and wallow in my own misery since I got the damned invitation? But I'm fine now."

"Bullshit. You look so awful you had to use your shadows _and_ some Mist to help you conceal your condition. Now talk to me, honestly. How are you feeling?"

"I shouldn't have bothered with it, it's not like anyone noticed me. As you have complained many times, people don't seem to notice me unless I want them to. And trust me, I didn't wasn't them to."

"You know what I mean, dumbass."

Nico sighed heavily, as if accepting his fate, and said:

"What do you think? I don't know why I even showed up. Your stupid idea of 'getting closure' is complete and utter bullshit. The only thing I got from all this was the tatters of my heart in a doggy bag."

Percy and Annabeth exchanged bewildered looks. What was this all about?

"Sorry I was wrong. But I did think it would do you some good." Jason was sounding apologetic.

"No need to look so down, Grace. I would probably be in a better shape if my invitation hadn't arrived only yesterday. I… wasn't prepared for this." The son of Hades said, looking troubled.

"Hermes said he had a huge backup in demigod deliveries. That's why yours was late."

"I think they just forgot about me."

Percy winced. They had kind of forgotten about Nico for a moment when sending out invitations… give him a break, planning a wedding was a lot harder he'd anticipated.

"That's not true. You've done so much for them."

"No, not them. You know that."

"You should have IM'd me when you got your invitation. I could've helped you through it" the son of Jupiter said, completely ignoring the last remark.

"I am a big boy, Jason. I can handle it by myself. And it was stupid to get upset over this."

"It's not stupid, Nico."

"Yes, it is. I had already accepted the fact that it would never happen, and yet… and yet when I got the invitation… I don't know. It was just so final." Nico's eyes looked a bit glassy.

They could see Jason nodding in agreement, then moving forward to envelop the son of Hades in a hug. Soft, heartbreaking sobs could be heard, and the couple hiding in the shadows was shocked that Nico was actually crying because of their wedding. They were feeling guilty, they should've remembered the boy's feeling for the daughter of Athena… but how were they supposed to know that the pale demigod still had a thing for Annabeth?

On the balcony Nico seemed to have calmed down a bit.

"It's ok. I'll get over it."

"You've been saying that for five years. You're not over it."

"Will you stop reminding me? I have to get over it, Jason! He's married now. Not that I ever had a shot, but now it is official."

Percy's mouth hung open. Nico said 'He's married now'. He. Not Annabeth. Him. And by the look on her face, she had just figured out the same thing as him.

"You know" Nico said through his tears "they are spending their honeymoon on one of my former beach houses. The one at Fernando de Noronha."

"Sometimes I forget you are rich." Jason tried to joke.

"I sold it not too long ago… I loved that house."

"Why did you sell it, then? It's not like you're short on cash."

"I sold it because it always smelled like the sea. It is right at the beach, I could watch the waves from my bedroom window. And the water looks just like his eyes…"

"Oh." Jason voiced Percy's astonishment.

"Yeah, it was awful. I would see his eyes, breathe in his scent, and… just lie there by myself."

The couple was hugging now, as if trying to share the burden of their guilt. How could they have missed this?

"Oh, Nico… why did you get it in the first place? You had to know it'd be like that." The blonde was still holding Nico, and seemed to be rubbing his back.

"I got it because I missed him. I missed him and this was all I'd ever get. So I took it, and it hurt like hell. I lived there for almost a year, though. Before it became too much."

Annabeth had tears in her eyes, and the son of Poseidon had a lump in his throat the size of Calypso's island. How much pain had they caused him? And still, he had come to their wedding. He even went as far as disguising himself as to not upset anyone else. He didn't bring a gift, though that hardly mattered.

Right then Nico put his chin on Jason's shoulder, and his gaze met Percy's. A mix of emotions passed by the Ghost King's face: shock, sorrow, embarrassment and anger. Then, just as quickly as they had come, they were gone. He had a blank expression on. The son of Hades disentangled himself form Jason's embrace and got up, heading in the couple's direction. The son of Jupiter turned around, confused, only to widen his eyes in surprise when he noticed he had an audience.

Nico wiped his tears away hastily, and said:

"Percy, Annabeth. I thought you'd be gone by now." His voice was low, controlled, just like his facial expression.

"Nico, we're so sorry…" Percy began.

"No need to apologize, it's not your fault. Unless you were apologizing for eavesdropping. Then you are guilty indeed."

"I didn't mean to, but you sounded so weird when we talked! And I was right, you lied to me!"

"Yes, I lied. Did you want me to tell you that I had to use the Mist and some shadows to hide the fact that I was…" he hesitated "affected by your invitation?"

"If you had told me I'd be more considerate of your feelings! You look miserable!"

"It doesn't matter. I'll be fine." Nico said stubbornly.

"Nico, please! We're so sorry." Annabeth said.

"I already told you. There's nothing for you to be sorry about. Aphrodite is the one that seems to get a kick out of this. You should go now, or you will oversleep and miss your flight."

"How'd you know our flight was in the morning?" Percy asked.

"Your wedding was such a big deal even the dead are talking. I met a dozen of ghosts during the reception who were gossiping about all the aspects of the ceremony, and your plans for later." Nico shrugged.

"Oh." Percy shuddered at the thought of ghosts crashing his reception.

"Yeah. Now leave, please." Nico's voice cracked on the last word, but everyone pretended it didn't.

Hand in hand the couple nodded and left, heavily weighed down by guilt. They trusted Jason to help the son of Hades through this, but hated to leave without solving things. Percy loathed seeing his friends in pain, an aversion Annabeth shared. She also disliked loose ends. She felt restless, but knew that staying there wouldn't make anything better. In fact, it would make it worse. They'd talk this out eventually, but not that night.

The following afternoon they got to the beach house on the island off the coast of Brazil. It was beautiful, and right at the beach like Nico said. They explored the house eagerly, until they got to the master bedroom. Indeed, they could see the water from there. Percy jumped on the bed, when he heard something crinkle. He felt around for a few seconds until his hand touched a piece of paper. Seeing as his dyslexia was worse than Annabeth's, he handed the note to her.

It took a while for her to read it, but when she finished she gasped.

"What is it?"

"It's from Nico."

She handed him back the paper, her subtle way of saying he should read it. Percy figured this was worth it. The note read:

_Dear Percy and Annabeth, congratulations!_

_This was the best gift I could whip up in such short notice. The house is now yours. The papers should be on the first drawer of the night stand._

_There are a few barriers around it, which should keep the monsters and annoying tourists away. Enjoy!_

Love

_Nico di Angelo_

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**[A/N]**

**Hello!**

**Thank you for reading! If you feel like leaving a comment, that'd be lovely. But please, do take into consideration that English is not my first language, so there may be a few errors along the way.**

**P.S.: For unknown reasons FFnet won't allow me to cross words through. So in the note, "Dear" and "Love" should be crossed out, not underlined...**


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